Don't count too much on fraud investigations in Egypt's referendum

On Tuesday, Egypt’s Justice Ministry says it will assign judges to probe allegations of voting violations.

“This is the first time in the history of Egypt that judges are assigned to investigate vote violations,” a ministry spokesman said at a news conference.

Judge Mahmoud Abu Shousha, a member of the commission overseeing the referendum, rejected the charges of voting irregularities.

He said it was impossible to replace judges with court officials during the supervision, and that all stations stayed opened for four extra hours to accommodate the long lines, dismissing claims that some closed early. He said more staff will be recruited for the second round to speed up the process.

“We don’t know what to do with those who spread these lies,” he said at a news conference.

So without the investigation having even started these MB-friendly judges who sit on the commission are drawing conclusions? I'm guessing this investigation will be over pretty quickly. More on the violations here.

The Brotherhood's spokesman, Mahmoud Ghozlan, is setting the tone about these fraud violations:

"These organizations are funded by Western countries. Just like the Westerners hate the Islamists, so do these groups. They are seculars and they hate the Islamists and have foreign agendas," Ghozlan said.